Effective Staffing for Vital Churches: The Essential Guide to Finding and Keeping the Right People

by Bill Easum, William Tenny-Brittian, Ed Stetzer (Foreword)

Well-staffed churches grow. But how do churches staff for growth in these rapidly changing times when budgets are tight, mission opportunities abound, and there is a growing shortage of qualified pastors, staff members, and church leaders? Two veteran pastors and church growth consultants offer workable solutions that focus on the four core processes vital to church health and bringing people to Christ and the church, retaining them, discipling them, and sending them back out into the world. They also show pastors how to navigate the leadership transitions they must make to become increasingly effective as the church grows. Pastors will learn how to be leaders who multiply leaders and develop a mission-minded staff that does the same. Foreward by Ed Stetzer.

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2012

About the author

See also William M. Easum.

Reviews

[Rich Weber · Rating 2 out of 5]

A helpful little book with some good tips on the importance of leadership development within a local church. However, for a book claiming to provide advice for staffing "vital churches," there is little effort to define what constitutes a "church" and what identifies it as "vital." The authors do root much of their advice in the notion that the only "true" church is a "missional" church -- but their analysis of the church's "mission" is off base. They seem to assume that the primary mission of the church is to "get bigger" -- to "break the brick ceiling" and grow from 100 to 300 to 500 to 1000+ in membership. This is rooted in a false dichotomy drawn between the "Jerusalem church" and the "Antioch church," with the assumption that the "Jerusalem church" was "inward focused" (and, hence, a bad church that was off-mission), while the "Antioch church" was "outward focused" (and, hence, a good church that was on-mission). But these two churches, in Acts, are never set up as models for local churches to follow, nor is enough detail given about the leadership practices and mission focus of either church to justify the model used by the authors of this book. (Besides, if the Gospel was initially preached in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, then to the ends of the earth, it would seem that the Good News did manage to reach beyond the alleged "self-focused" Jerusalem congregation).

Rather than basing their recommendations for church leaders on dubious assumptions about Jerusalem and Antioch, it would have been better to do a thorough analysis of New Testament teaching on the function of pastors/elders in the church -- the call for the pastor to "feed the flock," equipping them to do the work of ministry by being a faithful shepherd to them. However, rather than focusing on the "equipping" function of the office of elder/pastor -- or even the meaning of the term translated "pastor" -- the authors pull out Matt 18:12 (i.e., the man who has many sheep, leaving the 99 in order to find the 1) to justify the claim that the pastor of a small church should actually spend at least 70% of his time "making connections" with unbelievers in the community, bolstering this with the guilt-inducing accusation that any member of the congregation who would suggest that a pastor should be "pastoring" the flock given to him is merely "inward focused" (i.e., selfish).

The book has some good tips on organizing a church staff to train and deploy "ministry leaders" from within, even if it's ecclesiology is muddled. However, in the final pages of the book, their notion of being a "ministry leader" seems to be revealed when, as an example of coaching a congregation member to take responsibility for a ministry, they refer to an example of someone planning a skit to illustrate a point in the sermon. Only at that point does it become clear that the book is not about "staffing" a local church to produce mature disciples who are qualified to be elders and to eventually take the reins of church leadership -- it is about getting people "plugged in." The focus of the book is on helping everyone feel like they have a place in the church in order to retain them (so they won't slip out the back door). And, coming full circle, this fits the emphasis on "vital churches" being those that are breaking the "brick ceiling" and growing to 1000+, without emphasis on depth of discipleship or equipping lay members of the church to promote sound doctrine and defend the flock against those who would oppose it.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a structure for how staff should be added to churches to aid ongoing growth.

***
What I appreciated most about this book is that it gave a systematic approach to hiring in churches from startup to long-term thriving. I appreciate that the authors explain how some hires are motivated by just meeting the needs of the people that are already present, and they caution against it. I also appreciate the way that they help to lay out a rubric for hiring for function, not just hiring to satisfy specific subgroups of the congregation.

[Juan Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bill Easum and Bill Tenny-Brittian summarized some of the most important findings in missional church growth from the last 20 years. The point they both stressed is that a church must be missional or is not a church. I cannot agreed more but they go beyond by the outward focus a missional church must have and using proper staff for growth more than to maintaining the membership. Many ideas from different planters, pastors and authors I´d read came to mind again thanks to this book. Easum and Tenny of course are not ina theoretical realm, but their arguments on paradigm shift are very sound by trial and erros they both experience consulting. Great and useful book. A must read.

[Kas Avallon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as part of a church staff initiative. It provides insightful perspective for building a staff that can carryout the the mission of the church, but does require the organization to work in cooperation and share common objectives. As with any staff, buy-in to a common vision is essential. I would recommend this for a staff team that has a clear vision and understood mission. For individual readers with out that, trying to implement could be frustrating.

[Jonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book. Easum is a master, it makes me want to read all of his books! I learned a lot about how to be a pastor of a both big and small church reading this book. And it took just under three hours to read it!

[G. Kevin Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using this book with my staff as a guide and point of reference for the year ahead